Office 365 Germany

Office 365

Topic Last Modified: 2017-12-19

Office 365 Germany is a differentiated option from the Office 365 services already available across Europe. It helps address the needs of the most regulated customers in Germany, the European Union (EU), and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) by delivering our industry-leading productivity services for digital work, from German data centers, with data residency in Germany and strict data access and control measures via a unique data trustee model governed under German law.

The data trustee, T-Systems International, an independent German company and subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, controls physical and logical access to customer data. Customer data cannot be accessed without approval from or supervision by the data trustee, which is governed by German law.

Due to the unique nature of Office 365 Germany, there are some features that are have not yet been enabled. You will see the services come closer to full feature parity with global services over time. For an overview of what is included and how to get support, see Learn about Office 365 Germany.

Each Office 365 Germany plan includes a number of individual services, such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. The following table shows the services that are available in each Office 365 plan.

Service

Office 365 Germany Business Essentials

Office 365 Germany Business

Office 365 Germany Business Premium

Office 365 Germany Education A1

Office 365 Germany Enterprise E1

Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3

Office 365 Germany Enterprise E4

Office 365 Germany Enterprise K1

Office 365 Platform 1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Exchange Online

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SharePoint Online

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

OneDrive for Business

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Skype for Business Online

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Office Online

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Office 365 ProPlus2

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Project Online 3

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Power BI 3

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Visio Online4

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yammer Enterprise

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Azure Information Protection5

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Note:

1 Cloud-based subscription service with related features including the Office 365 admin center where you can set up users and domains.2 You can buy an Office 365 ProPlus plan separately. Office 365 ProPlus is included with Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Germany Enterprise E4. Modern authentication must be enabled for use with Office 365 Germany.3 Project Online and Power BI are not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on service or added for free to the Office 365 Germany Education A1 plan.4 Visio Online consumption (view capability) is available for free. Visio Online create and edit capabilities require a license. For more information about Visio Online, see the Visio Online Service Description.5 Azure Information Protection is not included yet, but it will be included with Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3, at a later date. For other plans, it will be possible to purchase Azure Information Protection as a separate add-on service or added for free to the Office 365 Germany Education A1 plan. For future reference, find out which RMS features are included with Office 365 plans, see Comparison of Rights Management Services (RMS) Offerings.

Office 365 Germany adheres to the cloud security and compliance standards of Office 365. Office 365 offers a comprehensive set of certifications, independently assessed by accredited auditors as part of Service Organization Controls (SOC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and audits. The certifications include ISO 27001/27002, 27017, 27018, and SOC 1 and 2. The additional data trustee controls in Office 365 Germany will be evaluated by independent assessors as part of our annual ISO and SOC audits.

1 Office 365 Germany does not provide support for any operating system that is not supported by its manufacturer.2 Azure Information Protection is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on and will enable the supported Information Rights Management (IRM) features. Some Azure Information Protection features require a subscription to Office 365 ProPlus, which is not included with Office 365 Germany Business Essentials, Office 365 Germany Business Premium, Office 365 Germany Enterprise E1, Office 365 Germany Education A1, or Office 365 Germany Enterprise K1.3 If using directory synchronization with a local Active Directory, you must delete accounts or change passwords by using the local Active Directory, rather than the Office 365 portal or by using the Azure Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell.4 To learn how to set self-service password management policies for users, see Manage Passwords in Azure AD. 5 Reducing seats that were purchased with a term discount may be subject to an early termination fee. This does not apply to subscriptions paid on a monthly basis.6 Office 365 Germany Education A1 plans do not support license seat changes from the Office 365 admin center.7 The right to use client software applications, such as Office 365 ProPlus Office 2016, and Office 2013 is included in some Office 365 Germany plans. Client software applications run on an end user’s device rather than in data centers in Germany. For purposes of your agreement with Microsoft, client software applications are not German Online Services. Client software applications also may enable an end user to access online services that are not German Online Services. German data residency commitments and access control by the German data trustee apply only to the German Online Services.8Modern authentication must be enabled for use with Office 365 Germany.9 Future availability planned for Office 365 Germany.10 Office 365 Germany is built in adherence to the cloud security and compliance standards of Office 365. Office 365 offers a comprehensive set of certifications, independently assessed by accredited auditors as part of SOC, ISO and audits. The certifications include ISO 27001/27002, 27017, 27018 and SOC 1 & 2 certification. The additional data trustee controls in Office 365 Germany will be evaluated by independent assessors as part of our annual ISO and SOC audits.

Office 365 Germany plans include client software applications that are installed and run on an end user’s device (“client software applications”), such as Office 365 ProPlus, Office 2013*, and Office 2016. Client software applications do not operate exclusively in German data centers and may enable an end user to access online services that are not German Online Services. For purposes of your agreement with Microsoft, client software applications are not German Online Services. German data residency commitments and access control by German data trustee apply only to the German Online Services. *Office 2013 for Office 365 Germany requires that modern authentication be enabled.

Use the following tables to compare feature availability across Office 365 Germany plans.

1 Office 365 Germany plans include client software applications that are installed and run on an end-user’s device (“client software applications”), such as Office 365 ProPlus, Office 2013, and Office 2016. Client software applications do not operate exclusively in German data centers and may enable an end-user to access online services that are not German Online Services. For purposes of your agreement with Microsoft, client software applications are not German Online Services. German data residency commitments and access control by German data trustee apply only to the German Online Services.2 Office 2013 requires that modern authentication be enabled.3 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on in order to enable the supported IRM features.4 Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately in order to enable the supported IRM features.5 If you have Office Professional Plus 2013 or a standalone version of Excel 2013, you can download and use the Power Map Preview for Excel 2013 as an unsupported add-in. 6 Skype for Business Basic is available for all customers. The Skype for Business desktop client is a locally installed application that provides presence, instant messaging, and conferencing features for Office 365 plans that include Skype for Business Online. Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 include the full Skype application, which includes additional features including advanced telephony support, archiving, and compliance features. A Skype for Business Online license must be assigned for each user. For more information on Lync Basic features, see Skype for Business Online client comparison tables.7 Some schools are eligible for Education Plus, which includes Office 365 ProPlus, and allows students, faculty and staff to install the latest version of Office on up to five PC or Mac computers and on other mobile devices, including Windows tablets and the iPad. Schools qualify for Office 365 Education Plus when they license Office institution-wide for faculty and staff through Enrollment for Education Solutions, Open Value Subscription Education Solutions, or a school contract. Note that Access and Publisher are available on PCs only. OneNote for Mac is available as a separate download from the Mac App Store.8 Office 2011 for Mac can be installed, but not activated.9 Volume activation for Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 and Office 365 ProPlus is limited to installations on Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer with the RDS role enabled or Windows To Go installations. In either case, users accessing these installations need to be licensed users of Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 or Office 365 ProPlus. 10 Access is currently available if you’re on Current Channel or on Targeted release for Deferred Channel. If you’re on Deferred Channel, Access will be available in June 2017. For more information, see Access included as part of Office 365 Business and Business Premium.11 Not available for Office 365 Germany, but coming soon.

1 Office 365 Germany plans include client software applications that are installed and run on an end-user’s device (“client software applications”), such as Office 365 ProPlus, Office 2013, and Office 2016. Client software applications do not operate exclusively in German data centers and may enable an end-user to access online services that are not German Online Services. For purposes of your agreement with Microsoft, client software applications are not German Online Services. German data residency commitments and access control by German data trustee apply only to the German Online Services.2 Office 2013 requires that modern authentication be enabled.3 Archiving and compliance features are supported with this version of Office, but the Exchange Online and SharePoint Online plans are not included and must be purchased separately or used with supported on-premises server equivalents.4 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on in order to enable the supported IRM features.5 Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately in order to enable the supported IRM features.6 If you have Office Professional Plus 2013 or a standalone version of Excel 2013, you can download and use the Power Map Preview for Excel 2013 as an unsupported add-in. 7 Skype for Business Basic is available for all customers. The Skype for Business desktop client is a locally installed application that provides presence, instant messaging, and conferencing features for Office 365 plans that include Skype for Business Online. Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 Enterprise E3 include the full Skype application, which includes additional features including advanced telephony support, archiving, and compliance features. A Skype for Business Online license must be assigned for each user. For more information on Lync Basic features, see Skype for Business Online client comparison tables.8 Office 2011 for Mac can be installed, but not activated.9 Office 365 ProPlus is supported on user-dedicated virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Office 365 ProPlus supports Remote Desktop Services (RDS) only when purchased through a Volume Licensing Program.10 Volume activation for Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 and Office 365 ProPlus is limited to installations on Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer with the RDS role enabled or Windows To Go installations. In either case, users accessing these installations need to be licensed users of Office 365 Germany Enterprise E3 or Office 365 ProPlus. 11 Not available for Office 365 Germany, but coming soon.

The following table provides links to comparisons of Office Online feature capabilities available in Office 365 Germany plans to feature-rich Microsoft Office desktop apps. Use the comparisons to discover what features are available in Office Online and then click on the feature name to read a brief description about how that feature works. You may discover that some people in your organization may need the advanced charting capability of the Excel desktop app while others may only need to view and lightly edit Word documents and PowerPoint presentations with Office Online.

Note:

A limited selection of Office features has been chosen to represent the advanced capabilities of the Office desktop suite. The table is not a comprehensive list of Microsoft Office features.Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus is a monthly subscription offer of the latest Office desktop suite.Microsoft Office Web Apps Server 2013 on-premises customers get an Office Online editing license if they have purchased an Office desktop suite license (such as Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, or an Office 365 ProPlus license).Due to the nature of Office 365 Germany, there are some features that have not yet been enabled. You will see the services come closer to full feature parity with global services over time.

1 Exchange 2010 supports only minimal hybrid deployment. (Full hybrid deployment is not supported for Exchange 2010.) For more information about minimal hybrid deployment, see Use express migration to migrate Exchange mailboxes to Office 365.2 Office 365 Germany Business Essentials and Office 365 Germany Business Premium do not provide access rights for utilization with on-premises servers. To be compliant, customer must purchase or have previously purchased the appropriate CALs or upgrade to an Enterprise SKU, which provides these access rights.3 Not available for Office 365 Germany, but coming soon.4 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on (or added for free to the Office 365 Germany Education A1 plan) in order to enable the supported IRM features. Office 365 Message Encryption depends on Azure Information Protection.5 Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately in order to enable the supported IRM features.6 For eDiscovery, you need a separate query for on-premise vs. cloud.7 Transport rules are made up of flexible criteria, which allow you to define conditions and exceptions, and actions to take based on the criteria. The available criteria and actions differ between Exchange Online, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. For a list of available criteria and actions, see the corresponding criteria and actions topics for each product.8 Only accessible via direct access to the Exchange admin center (EAC) management interface.9 Exchange Server 2013 uses only the Microsoft anti-malware engine. Exchange Online uses multiple anti-malware engines to scan inbound, outbound, and internal messages for malware.10 Connected accounts are supported for POP & IMAP accounts, but disabled for Outlook.com (Hotmail). 11 An EOA subscription can be purchased separately for each mailbox that requires the inactive mailbox feature.12 Using a cmdlet to work with the Address List and Global Address List is not supported.13 Requires using Availability Address Space to support sharing with other tenants. For more information on how to create an Availability Address space, see Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace.14 Table indicates whether or not the client works with the associated plans. It does not mean the clients are necessarily included in the purchase of these plans. 15 POP is supported, but IMAP is not.16 Some third-party web parts and add-ins may not be available.

The following table lists the Exchange Online Protection (EOP) features that are available across Office 365 Germany plans. For more detailed information about EOP features, click the links in the table. When Exchange Online is mentioned, it typically refers to the Office 365 Enterprise service family.

1 Mail users are defined as “Mailboxes,” and, along with external mail contacts, can be added, removed, and otherwise managed directly in the Exchange admin center (EAC).2 No RBAC customization. Admin roles only.3 Managed domains can be viewed and domain types can be edited in the EAC. All other domain management must be done in the Office 365 admin center.4 The available flexible criteria and actions differ between EOP and Exchange Online. For a list of available criteria and actions in EOP, see Transport Rule Criteria and Transport Rule Actions. For a list of available criteria and actions in Exchange Online, see Transport Rule Criteria and Transport Rule Actions.5 EOP auditing reports are a subset of Exchange Online auditing reports that exclude information about mailboxes.6 DLP policy tips are not available for Exchange Enterprise CAL with Services customers. 7 The default content filter action is to move spam messages to the recipients’ Junk Email folder. For this to work with on-premises mailboxes, you must also configure two Exchange Transport rules on your on-premises servers to detect spam headers added by EOP. For more information, see Ensure that Spam is Routed to Each User's Junk Email Folder.8 This feature is available to Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) customers whose mailboxes are being filtered by EOP, and will soon be available to Exchange Online customers.9 EOP reports are a subset of Exchange Online reports that exclude information about mailboxes.10 Includes DLP reports.11 Exchange Enterprise CAL with Services customers should install the workbook by selecting the Exchange Online service rather than the Exchange Online Protection service.12 Supported for on-premises customers who purchase Azure Information Protection and use Exchange Online Protection to route email through Exchange Online.13 Scans inbound and outbound messages, but does not scan internal messages sent from a sender in your organization to a recipient in your organization.14 The available predicates and actions differ between EOP and Exchange Online. 15 Hybrid setup is not available through the Hybrid Wizard, but can be set up manually if you have Exchange SP1.16 Available in Office 365 Germany E1 and above.17 Available in Office 365 Germany E3.18 Available as an add-on feature for Office 365 Germany.

The following table lists the Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection features that are available across Office 365 Germany plans. For more detailed information about EOP features, click the links in the table. When Exchange Online is mentioned, it typically refers to the Office 365 Enterprise service family.

1 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-in order to enable supported IRM features.2 The Office and SharePoint App Stores are optional services operated by Microsoft Corporation or its affiliate from any of Microsoft’s worldwide facilities. The apps available in the Store are provided by various app publishers and are subject to the app publisher’s terms and conditions and privacy statement. Your use of any of these apps may result in your data being transferred to, stored, or processed in any country where the app publisher, its affiliates, or service providers maintain facilities. Availability of specific apps and payment methods depends on your region and service. Please carefully review the app publisher’s terms and conditions and privacy statements before downloading and using such apps.3 Not yet available for Windows phone.4 Visio Online consumption (view capability) is available for free. Visio Online create and edit capabilities require a license. For more information about Visio Online, see the Visio Online Service Description.

1 To use folder sync, you must have Office 2013 or later (Standard or Professional edition) or an Office 365 subscription that includes Office applications. Office 365 Germany Business Essentials, Office 365 Germany Enterprise E1Office 365 Germany Enterprise E1, and Office 365 Germany Education A1 plans do not include subscriptions to Office desktop applications. However, you can use folder sync if you have Office 2013 or later installed and subscribe to one of these plans.2 Kiosk accounts have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. Kiosk customers can use the OneDrive for Business folder sync client application to sync team site document libraries with a shared computer and access documents offline. But kiosk accounts do not include a OneDrive for Business Personal Site, so they do not benefit from a OneDrive for Business personal library with 1 TB of online storage. 3 Azure Information Protection is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-in order to enable the supported IRM features. To create RMS protected content you must have Office Professional Plus 2013, Office Professional Plus 2016, Office 365 Pro Plus, or Outlook Web Access.4 Because Kiosk users can’t be administrators, tenants with Kiosk users need at least one Enterprise user to access the admin center. 5 SharePoint Online customers need to download and install the free Rank Model Tuning App in order to create and customize ranking models. 6 When you use eDiscovery features, the licensing requirement for a plan that permits that feature applies to all end users that are part of the eDiscovery action (Search, Hold, Export).7 Authenticated SharePoint Online users can access private site collections with faceted navigation.8 Some providers might not be available in your locale.9 Sharing a document, library, or site by email with someone outside of your organization. Administrators do have the ability to turn it on, but will get a warning message indicating that it could make files shared accessible outside of your country. Users who attempt to share with someone outside of the organization will receive the same warning message.10 Kiosk accounts have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. Kiosk customers can use the OneDrive for Business folder sync client application to sync team site document libraries with a shared computer and access documents offline. But kiosk accounts do not include a OneDrive for Business Personal Site, so they do not benefit from a OneDrive for Business personal library with 1 TB or 5 TB of online storage.11 You can view documents in any Mobile browser. You need to install the Office Mobile app to edit documents. Office Mobile is currently available for Windows phones and tablets, Android phones and tablets, iPhone, and iPad.12 Help is available only in Simplified Chinese and English.13 Comments on blogs cannot be added.14 Organization community website is available, but public community-provided help is not available.15 Access 2010 is not supported.16 Kiosk users cannot create Office documents using live tiles. To create a document, kiosk users must do so from a SharePoint Online site by clicking New and then selecting a file type – Word document, Excel workbook, PowerPoint presentation, OneNote notebook, or Excel survey – from the Create a new file menu.17 Sandboxed solutions cannot contain user code. Rather, they may only contain definition (.xml) files and resources that are processed by the server when they activate.18 InfoPath Forms that contain user code (Sandbox) can only be consumed in InfoPath Rich Client.19 Visio Online consumption (view capability) is available for free. Visio Online create and edit capabilities require a license. For more information about Visio Online, see the Visio Online Service Description.20 K1 users can access SharePoint Server in a hybrid setup, but Office 365 K1 does not include CAL rights to access the server; these rights must be purchased separately

1 The Skype for Business (Lync) client is supported for use with these subscription options, but it is not included. Lync 2013 Basic is available for all customers. The Lync Basic desktop client is a locally installed application that provides presence, instant messaging, and conferencing features for Office 365 plans that include Skype for Business Online. Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 Enterprise E3 include the full Skype for Business (Lync) application, which include additional features including advanced telephony support, archiving & compliance features. A Skype for Business Online license must be assigned for each user. For more information on Lync Basic features, see Skype for Business Online client comparison tables.2 Archiving for Skype for Business Online depends on the Exchange In-Place Hold feature, which is not included in this plan. 3 Only accessible through the Skype for Business Online admin center management interface.4 You must assign an Exchange Online (Plan 2) plan to users who you want to have voice mail. An Exchange Online (Plan 1) plan can't be used for voice mail.5 Skype consumer calls are not supported in Office 365 Germany because there is no Skype consumer federation upon which to make calls. However, Federated calling is supported.6 Not available in Office 365 Germany, but coming soon.